The Ways We Take Away From Our Lives {Flash Dharma}

We lose so much of our lives by dwelling on the past, obsessing about the future, or just wishing really hard that right now was different. But this is where we are.

By Daniel Scharpenburg

This life right now, in each moment, is all we really have.

The past is gone and the future is only potential. We spend so much time not focused on the here and now, but we do have the power to change that.

We have a few ways that we tend to take away from the fullness of our lives. We sleepwalk—we just go through the motions of life without being present or acting with intention. This is where we just let things happen and we don’t really reflect on why we do the things we do.

We also take away from the fullness of our lives by wishing. We consistently don’t value where we are. To wish we were somewhere else is to take away from here. To wish to be entertained instead of doing nothing is to take away from doing nothing. There is value in doing nothing.

To give to our lives is to understand what it means to be “good enough.” We are good enough and what we are doing is good enough. We’re trying to learn how to enter this moment completely without judgment, without hating our experience or wishing for something else.

We lose so much of our lives by dwelling on the past, obsessing about the future, or just wishing really hard that right now was different. But this is where we are.

We might imagine our meditation practice taking us to some special place or giving us some magical experience. That’s not what happens; we are training to be here. That’s it. It is completely ordinary.

When we’re fully present we can learn how to be content.

Photo: Pixabay

Editor: Dana Gornall

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